Creating Meals You Need (and enjoy!)
Most of the time when a client comes to me for help with meals, they think they want something laid out specifically so they have ZERO decisions to make about WHAT to eat. Haven’t we all wanted someone else to be responsible for the choices that go along with food? I mean, there’s a lot.
You may have had the very same request when it comes to cooking (and I am by no means an expert), but here’s what I’ve discovered about food: If you want someone to take the ALL responsibility away from you, you will not appreciate, value or enjoy the nourishment, effort or taste of what you’re eating.
This flies in the face of all the meal delivery services that are available now. Although meal choice is still in our control, they aren’t that far away from the old frozen dinners are they? I’ve not ever used one, but the effort of choosing meals, grocery shopping, chopping and cooking is a large part of how deeply we enjoy and are nourished by food.
This is because our minds and bodies are constantly communicating to each other. Dr. Caroline Leaf, a communication pathologist and cognitive neuroscientist with a Masters and PhD in Communication Pathology and a BSc in Logopaedics (functional pathology), has written many blogs about this topic specifically. The mind and body are not exclusive in any way. When we try to separate what we think from how our bodies respond, we create a disconnect that must be restored in order to function well. There is no shortcut, even when it comes to food.
We often think that convenience is king because we are too busy to spend the time and energy to make good meals. We think we can take all the shortcuts and we won’t feel the difference. But we do. We all do. The difference between creating a meal at home that nourishes and satisfies not only what we require physically, but what we need emotionally and socially, compared to a fast food experience, is 180* apart.
We know this intellectually. Very often, clients will talk about how it’s very difficult to eat the way they know is best because of schedules (knowledge doesn’t change behaviors, btw). This may be where the rubber meets the road for you. There’s no getting around the time needed to make the food you eat as good as possible.
Placing that kind of value on meals may seem like a luxury reserved only for those without schedule demands or small kids and with lots of expendable income. BUT, we will always pay a high price for convenience, and not just with our money. We pay for convenience foods with our energy, metabolism, waist and hip measurements, digestion, mental clarity/strength and our future fitness.
Experience has taught me that cooking cannot be replaced by speed.
I’m not negating the fact the some things need to be quick in order to be useful. There are still plenty of good foods that don’t take much time. But the lion’s share of meals, when cooked at home and shared together, create a connection between family and how our food functions in our bodies that is irreplaceable.
Smoked pork butt with romaine and pesto potato salads.😍
Recently, we cooked a meal that made me think of sharing it. Not because I’m the best cook or had the best presentation, but because I very loosely followed the recipes and it still turned out great by all taste buds. If you’ve read any of my food posts lately, you know I’ve been using a lot of Half Baked Harvest recipes like this one for the green salad and one for Pesto Potato Salad. These were no exception.
Except, I deviated from the recipes in order to make them efficient for my family. And this is my suggestion for you if your food struggles are with time and taste buds (there are picky eaters galore in my family!)
The green salad is supposed to be a shredded Brussels sprouts (which I love) but chopped romaine was faster and more palate pleasing to the youngsters in the group, so I chose that.
The potato salad called for homemade pesto, which would have been much healthier, but I opted for pre-made because of a shortage of basil and time (and thyme!😂). Both of these substitutions made sense to me, even though they change the food quality slightly. The benefit for us in the moment made it doable.
And this is how I live my life with food. I make exceptions to the rules with recipes in order to make home-cooked meals work for us. Now that I know we all like all of these, next time, I’ll make pesto from scratch so I can use olive oil instead of store bought with soybean oil. I may keep the romaine instead of the shaved Brussels sprouts because I really like lettuce and raw sprouts can be a digestive challenge for some!
These decisions help me navigate foods in a way that maintains nutrition (there’s fiber, massive macronutrients, variety, low processing and taste!) but it’s doable.
The last piece of the puzzle that almost always comes as a shock when we start addressing habits around food is that we must be relaxed in order to digest and use food. Otherwise, it can get stuck along the way, stored more than used and most often, we’re unsatisfied. Then go hunting for the elusive treat that we think we want.
What we really want is to be satisfied with good food that meets our needs and is enjoyable so we can get on with our lives.
If you’re into more tips about how to incorporate the foods you enjoy in a way that’s livable and beneficial for your health, please reach out! It’s one of my life’s greatest accomplishments to help other people find their best fitness by making a simple, easy-to-execute plan together.😍
